Remembering Legendary Songwriter Gerry Goffin

Oscar-nominated songwriter, Gerry Goffin, passed away on Thursday June 19, 2014, at his Los Angeles, Calif. home, his wife Michele Goffin announced. He was 75. A chemist by day and lyricist by night, Goffin rose to acclaim as songwriter in the early 1960’s with singer-songwriter Carole King.

All told, Goffin was the lyrical force behind more than 50 Top 40 U.S. hit songs. In 1959, Goffin and King married after they had met and fallen in love, while attending Queens College in New York.

Goffin’s journey in songwriting began in 1960, when he co-wrote Will You Love Me Tomorrow with King. The popular African-American girl group The Shirelles recorded it, and the song became Goffin and King’s first number one hit. Contrary to popular belief, King didn’t pen the lyrics for this tale of teenage romance; however, according to her 2012 memoir, A Natural Woman, Goffin did.

Throughout the rest of the 1960s, the husband-and-wife songwriting team co-wrote many of the radio friendly hit songs of the decade, including: The Drifters’ Some Kind of Wonderful, Bobby Vee’s Take Good Care of My Baby, Pleasant Valley Sunday for The Monkees, and The Locomotion, Little Eva’s 1962 hit that would go on to be hit for Australian singer Kylie Minogue in the late 1980s. And, Goffin would go on to write the lyrics to (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman that Aretha Franklin made famous.

Mistakenly, we regard many of these songs just as being “Carole King songs”, she wrote the music, and would later record many of them herself, when she embarked on a successful solo career. But even as she sang Up On the Roof – song that was originally made famous by the Drifters and later recorded by King’s best friend, James Taylor – the lyrics were Goffin’s.

“If you want to join [Goffin’s] loved ones in honoring him, look at the names of the songwriters under the titles of songs,” King said in a statement. “Among the titles associated with me, you’ll often find Gerry’s name next to mine.”

In 1968, Goffin and King divorced, but their creative partnership led to their induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three years later. Their love story is explored in a 2014 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical.

After their divorce, Goffin was nominated for an Academy Award for composing the theme to Mahogany in 1975, and in 1977, he earned a Golden Globe nomination for So Sad the Song from the film Pipe Dreams.

In his later years, Goffin continued to write songs and retained a keen ability to recognize talent. He was one of the first people to take notice of American Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson, and hired her to sing demos of his songs prior to her television audition and success, according to Rolling Stone.

Goffin is survived by his wife Michele, five children, six grandchildren, and his songs that have touched millions of fans around the world.

Carole King said in a statement, that Goffin was “a dynamic force, whose words and creative influence will resonate for generations to come.”  While we will still love his songs tomorrow, he will be greatly missed.